There are two fictional stories about St. Francis which can illustrate the readings today. One it mentions once a fire broke out and the friars were worried about losing their books including the bible, so someone yelled “Save the Bible” and yet another responded, “ No. Save St. Francis who knows the Bible.” Yet another story says that one time the friars noticed that St. Francis was no longer reading the Bible. This was strange for them because Francis would spend many days reflecting on the Bible. Finally, one of the friars had the courage to say to St. Francis why he no longer was reading the Bible. St. Francis responded calmly “I am still trying to live the passage I was reflecting two weeks ago.” Granted these stories are fictional using the person of St. Francis but they do tell us something about the readings. The beatitudes are our recipes for life. One of them, only one, can be sufficient to practice it for our whole lives. This ties into the story of St. Francis, he was still trying to apply what he read some time after reading that passage. In our lives the beatitude of one verse can take us a whole lifetime to achieve. We are given eight beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew. If we would work on all eight of them, we could be overwhelmed. One of the beatitudes is sufficient and it is usually the one which we struggle the most. Today one of the beatitudes many young people and old as well struggle with is the one about being pure of heart. The world offers so much impurity, uncontrolled sexuality, lustful thoughts, and actions. For some this is the struggle of their lives. Perhaps they can ask the Holy Spirit to help them be pure of heart. They can work on this beatitude when they come the church and participate in the sacraments with honor and devotion. For some people others their beatitude to work on would be to be meek because they are flying high with their pride. And so, the story can continue with all the beatitudes, each person will have a different challenge for each of the beatitudes. For some it will take a whole life to work just on one. It would be great if a person can live all the beatitudes but if they can only live one, it’s a progress. So returning to the story of Francis, he realized that is not about reading the bible, but its about applying the verse in the day to day life. There is another beatitude not mentioned here but a little later in the Gospel of Matthew 11: 6 that applies to this discussion, “And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.” As long as we try to live the beatitudes albeit one and take no offense at Jesus and accept Him as the Messiah and trust him confidently, we are headed in the right direction. Let us try to live one of the beatitudes but we need to start somewhere, and perhaps it is with the beatitude we struggle the most. Reading the beatitudes, we can be like Francis, stop and think maybe before I move on the next verse, I need to work on this verse, on this aspect of my life, on this one beatitude. Take seriously each and every one of them and advance toward eternity while living the beatitudes one at a time.